Pure Hearts
by Laura Schiller
Summary: AU for episode 2.16, "The Miller's Daughter". If only Snow hadn't used the candle ...


Pure Hearts

By Laura Schiller

Based on: Once Upon A Time

Copyright: Edward Kitsis & Anthony Horowitz

David hardly recognized his Snow White. Her eyes were hard, her voice tight with bitterness and anger as she tried to argue that killing Cora was the only solution.

"I made the "right" decision so many times and look where it got me!" She threw up her hands. "I spared Regina and she went on to put the curse on us. I sent Emma into the wardrobe and we missed her entire childhood - "

"Aren't you forgetting something?" David caught her by the shoulders. "With all due respect, my love, you haven't _always_ made the right decision. Your wrong decisions have consequences too. Remember when you tried to assassinate Regina with a magic arrow? The arrow I caught instead?"

Snow blushed as pink as her coat. "That – that wasn't me!"

"Exactly."

"I was under the influence of a potion that made me forget you."

"That's my point!" He shook her lightly, then let her go. "The real you is pure of heart. That's why I love you. If you lose that – if you lose yourself – it won't matter if you kill Cora and Regina, they'll have won anyway. Regina tried to kill Cora once, and that didn't stop her from following in her footsteps. You don't want that, do you? You don't want to be the next generation of evil queens."

Snow's face crumpled with the effort of fighting back tears. She held out her arms and he gathered her close to him, letting her sob into his shoulder, neither caring that they were in a public street. He could feel her hatred drain away with her tears.

"But," she whispered, wiping her eyes and stepping back, "It looks like they'll win either way. What should we do? What _can_ we do?"

The mention of pure hearts had rung a bell in David's mind. In the best case scenario, Cora would be redeemed. In the worst case, she would still be more vulnerable than she had been before. "I have an idea."

/

 _Squish._

Cora's heart slipped back into her chest as easily as if she had taken it out only yesterday. With it came an onslaught of emotions so powerful they made her gasp for breath.

Regina watched her, black eyes filled with a painful, half-ashamed hope. Regina, her heiress, her beautiful baby girl for whose advancement she had lied and murdered and done terrible things, her daughter whose life she had ruined in the name of love, whom she had never truly loved until this moment.

"Mother?"

Cora laughed wildly and held out her arms for a hug. It felt like the first in a lifetime.

A sardonic cough made them both jump. Rumpelstiltskin lay on the sofa behind them, smiling crookedly, full of bravado even on his deathbed. His brown eyes, however, told a different story. They shone with a soft light in his exhausted features.

"Ah, I should've known Snow couldn't do it," he muttered. "How does it feel, Majesty, to be weak again like the rest of us?"

He looked more human without his glittering gray skin, more ordinary, but she loved him as dementedly as ever. This was the first man in all her life who had respected her, who had given her power and yet never feared her. And – _oh, Gods –_ this was the man she had conspired with Captain Hook to kill.

Seeing him again was, in its different way, just as staggering as seeing Regina. Her heart throbbed in her chest, so powerfully that tears came rushing to her eyes.

"I should have run away with you when I had the chance."

"Don't get your hopes up, dearie." He raised a cinnamon-colored eyebrow. "I've someone else now."

"That's beside the point, you arrogant fool." Cora sniffed, wiped her eyes with the corner of her borrowed suit jacket, and drew herself up tall. "The point is for you to live. I know the poison Hook used. Do you have any phoenix tears in this magpie's nest of yours?"

"Well, I was planning on a different solution involving your death by Blood Candle, but that'll do the trick." He pointed shakily at one of the cupboards with his cane. "Top shelf, orange glass bottle. No more than three drops, unless you want me to burst into flames."

Regina, who was standing closer, grabbed the bottle and handed it to Cora. Cautiously, she took the eyedropper that formed the bottle's lid and let three drops fall into Rumplestiltskin's open mouth.

As with most Light Magic, the effects were gentle. A flame-colored sparkle spread from the wound on his chest, knitting it together within minutes. He took a deep breath, grinned at the absence of pain, and sat up straight on the sofa with visible relief. Cora hovered, wanting to help him, but if there was anything she knew about her old lover, it was that he hated being weak. Just like her.

"It appears I'm in your debt," he said soberly, without a trace of his usual sarcasm. "You too, Regina. If you hadn't given Cora her heart back - "

"Consider it my reparation for keeping Belle locked up," said Regina. "Will you … can you forgive me?"

"It's a deal." They shook hands on it, a gesture that made Cora smile. He hadn't changed.

"Now." He took his cane and hauled himself to his feet. "If you would please excuse me?" He waved graciously towards the door. "I have important matters to take care of."

"That's right, your son." Regina smiled, most likely thinking of Henry. "Did you find him?"

"Long story. And, if you'll forgive me, one I'd rather not divulge at the moment. You, dearies," sweeping one long-fingered hand in their direction, "Have your work cut out for you if you want to earn back Storybrooke's trust."

"Fair enough." Cora exchanged a rueful look with her daughter as Rumplestiltskin limped out of the room.

"He's right, you know," said Regina, once they were alone. "Reformation is hard work. These people's trust only goes so far, as I'm sure you've observed."

Cora decided to ignore that subtle dig about the way she'd framed Regina for the murder of the cricket.

"I have my heart back," she said instead, squeezing her daughter's hand. "And I have _you._ What could happen?"

Regina tipped back her glossy black head and laughed. "You just had to ask that, Mother. In this town, something always does."


End file.
